The present invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for automatically sorting articles, and more particularly to a method of and an apparatus for automatically sorting vegetables, such as potatoes and tomatoes and fruits, such as apples and pears by their sizes.
Vegetables and fruits are required to be sorted or classified into groups by their sizes since their qualities are evaluated according to size, and buying and selling prices are determined by the qualities thus rated. It has been conventional practice to establish a plurality of size grades in advance and to manually sort out randomly mixed vegetables or fruits that have been brought by producers according to the predetermined size grades. However, such a manual sorting process invites an increase in the cost as the personnel expenses run up, and cannot perform an efficient and uniform sorting operation.
There is known an apparatus for automatically sorting articles such as vegetables and fruits. In the known automatic sorting apparatus, there has been a demand for properly and simply setting article grades for sorting articles.
It is also necessary during article selection to quickly and accurately determine the area and number of articles as they flow along the sorting line for an efficient article sorting operation. Vegetables such as tomatoes and potatoes sometimes suffer from the deficiency of an irregular shape, and the irregularly shaped ones should be separated from the normally shaped ones before sale, since the badly shaped articles have a reduced market value.